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Board makes opposition official

Amendment concerns include control, economy

The Forsyth County Board of Education approved a resolution Thursday opposing the state charter school amendment that will appear on the Nov. 6 ballot.

Board member Ann Crow, who has led the local charge on opposing the measure, said the amendment would hurt the financial stability of the public school system.

Crow said passing the measure was unusual but necessary.

“As long as I’ve been in Forsyth County … I’ve never known a school board to take an action like this,” she said during the meeting.

“I think the community needs to know that this is serious business and that this resolution supports public education, which we strongly believe in.”

In addition to the presidential and other federal, state and local races, the November general election ballot will ask voters if they would like the Georgia Legislature to amend the constitution to allow the state to approve and provide funding for charter schools.

The local school board’s resolution states the economic condition of Georgia has led to reductions in resources for Forsyth and other districts.

The school system supports locally approved charter schools or those approved by the state education board, as Georgia law currently dictates, according to the resolution.

However, the resolution goes on to note that the Forsyth school board “opposes the state’s establishment of a separate system of state-authorized public charter schools that are funded through a funding formula that unilaterally takes critically needed resources from local public school districts and redirects them to the state-controlled charter schools.”

The measure, which Crow said was adopted “on behalf of all of our schools in our community,” passed in a 5-0 vote.